Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer Team Zeta
by Rinias
Summary: On the island continent of Hooku, a veteran exploration team finds themselves investigating a string of unusual Z crystal thefts. Unbeknownst to them, this will set them on an epic journey to save the world.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, Nintendo does. This story is just for fun.**

 **Welp, here's the introduction chapter to this story, enjoy! :)**

* * *

"Wake up!"

"…"

"Come on, wake up!" the voice called, slightly louder and more coarse than before.

The half asleep dark fox reluctantly opened his eyes, making a quick glance around the room. The room was barren of anything except for two mattresses, two small chests, and some papers. Looking out the window, he could tell it was shortly after sunrise.

Right now, however, the dark fox's attention was on the large green lizard that had disturbed his sleep. The lizard was tall, and his skin was a light green color, save for a small patch of red skin on his neck and a long red stripe across his belly. He had a very long and leaf-like tail; it was a much darker green than the rest of his skin and resembled a fern. On his back, he adorned six yellow seed-like pods in two rows. He had two sharp leaves, almost sword-like, extending from each of his arms, and on each hand, he bore three equally sharp claws. His yellow eyes, even though appearing half-closed, shone adamantly and faintly glimmered with the soul of adventure. Most people would refer to this Pokémon as a Sceptile. The Sceptile had a small leather backpack strapped to his back, and wore a red scarf around his neck, matching the color of the skin there. On the scarf, a small green spherical gem could be seen.

"You're an early riser as always," the Sceptile said, silently smirking sarcastically.

"Shut up." the dark fox mumbled as he slowly arose from his bed. The dark fox Pokémon stood up, revealing he was quite tall, but not quite as tall as the Sceptile standing in front of him. The dark fox had mostly dark grey fur on his body except for in a few areas. He had a large amount of pitch black chest fur which could only be described as a mane. On his head, he had very long, shaggy red hair, which reached well below his waist. Although this hair was mostly red, there were some tiny streaks of dark black in his hair as well. On both of his hands and feet, he had three sharp red claws. His face appeared quite sharp as well, with his pointy ears and narrow aqua blue eyes. His squinting eyes almost gave the impression that he was plotting something; perhaps he was planning his revenged against the idiot who disturbed his sleep. This dark fox's species was known as Zoroark.

The Zoroark's expression eventually softened, however, as he began to stretch his arms and back, cracking a few bones in the process. "Good morning, Sylvan." the Zoroark said to his roommate, still some drowsiness evident in his voice. "Morning, Ren." the Sceptile replied.

The Zoroark, Ren, after finishing his morning stretching, went over to one of the nearby chests to gather some belongings. The first item he pulled out was a small blue band. On the outside of the band there was a small black octahedral-shaped crystal. Using the small band, he tied a small ponytail near the end of his long, overflowing hair to keep it from being too unruly. Next, out of his chest, he picked up a small backpack. Quickly, he checked its contents, before closing it and fitting it upon his back.

As Ren finished closing his chest, Sylvan began to speak, "Let's go meet up with Saya and decide what we're going to do today." At the mention of the name "Saya," Ren's left ear slightly, but noticeably, twitched. For just a short moment Ren stood completely motionless, as if he were in a dream. Seeing this reaction, Sylvan smirked, and he was just barely unable to stifle a light chuckle.

After that short moment, Ren finally snapped out of his daze and back into reality. "Right! Let's go!" he proclaimed as he began to march out of their dorm room, proceeding to the main lobby of the guild hall. Sylvan followed behind him, making sure to close the door to their room on his way out.

* * *

Sylvan and Ren, along with their friend Saya, were part of the Exploration Guild of Hooku. Hooku was a large island continent, and so the Exploration Guild served not only as explorers, but often as rescue teams and law enforcement. The Exploration Guild had small branches all over the island continent, but the largest branch, where the Main Guild Hall was, was located in the center of the continent, in a place called Star Town.

Members of the guild often formed groups to work together in, naming themselves a team. Sylvan, Ren, and Saya comprised a team called Team Zephyr. All three of them were seasoned veterans, and so they were fairly well-known among other guild members. They were definitely one of the more powerful teams in the guild. As such, they were stationed at the Main Guild Hall in Star Town. They did travel around the continent to help other branches of the guild occasionally, but Star Town was definitely what they would call "home."

The Sceptile and Zoroark made their way to the main lobby. It was breakfast time for the guild, so the main lobby was bustling with tons of Pokémon sitting at tables eating their breakfast. Their must have been at least a hundred voices scattering through the room at once. The two team members could hear many fragments of conversations as they made their way through the crowd. As they walked over to get some food, they looked for their friend Saya, but, much to Ren's disappointment, they couldn't find her among the large bunch of Pokémon already eating breakfast.

* * *

They quickly made their way to the kitchen to get their breakfast. Sylvan helped himself to a Tomato berry soup, while Ren decided on an assortment of dry nut-like berries, mostly consisting of Chesto berries. They wandered over to the tables and quickly found a small four-seated wooden table to eat their breakfast at. The two sat at adjacent sides of the table, and began to chow down on their food. From the way they ate their food, they were probably very hungry.

"I still don't understand how you can love such dry food." Sylvan interjected between sips of his hot soup.

"And I don't understand how you don't burn yourself on all that spicy food." Ren managed to retort in between bites of his food. "I thought grass-types were weak to burns."

"But without the spice, my food would be boring. It wouldn't have that 'zing' to it, ya know?" Sylvan replied as he downed another large spoonful of his soup.

"Whatever you say." Ren responded apathetically, as he simply shrugged, eagerly devouring another of his favorite dry, nut-like, berries.

Suddenly, out of nowhere Ren felt two soft and fluffy arms embrace him from behind. For a near moment, the shear surprise of the action had almost caused his fur to stand on end, but he immediately recognized the culprit of the surprise hug from its gentle nature. "Good morning, Saya." the Zoroark responded, momentarily distracted from his food due to the Pokémon behind him.

"Good morning Ren!" the surprise hugger responded cheerfully, before she quickly let go of the embrace. "Good morning to you too, Sylvan!" she added as she took a seat at the table sitting next to Ren.

Saya appeared to be a rabbit Pokémon, having two very large drooping ears. The fur on most of her body was a brown color, but she had a much fluffier light-tan colored fur covering her ears, around her wrists, and on her feet. She was a little shorter than the other two Pokémon at the table, but probably only by a foot. Like her teammates, she wore a small backpack on her back. She also wore a few wristbands on her right wrist, but one in particular stood out. The band was pink and on it was fastened a small light pink gem, octahedrally shaped, similar to the shape of the gem on Ren's hair tie. On her face, she had pink eyes, which for some reason seemed to shine brightly with joy, along with a gentle smile, which only added to the air of serenity surrounding her. Their friend, Saya, was a Lopunny.

Almost unnoticeably, another Pokémon who had been following Saya, quietly and shyly sat down in the remaining seat. This new Pokémon was slender and humanoid. Before she sat down, you could see she was probably about the same height as Ren. Her light blue hair covered one of her eyes and curled back around her head. Her one visible eye was a deep orange color, and in that eye, there was a certain timid innocence. Her arms were the same color as her hair, light blue, while the rest of her body and face were a pure white color. The skinniness of her arms and legs gave her an appearance of being fragile, but the pure white dress-like clothing covering her body made her look dignified. But perhaps the most peculiar part of her was an orange fin-like thing protruding from her chest, perfectly matching the color of her one visible eye. This Pokémon was a Gardevoir, and not an ordinary one, but a shiny one.

"Good morning, Tiffania." Sylvan and Ren both greeted the newcomer in unison.

"Good morning." Tiffania replied quietly. There was a hint of nervousness in her voice, but she still appeared to be relatively comfortable around the Pokémon of Team Zephyr surrounding her.

The reason for this, was that Tiffania had been childhood friends with Saya. And although Saya had invited her childhood friend to join Team Zephyr when they formed, Tiffania declined, preferring her job as a secretary for the guild. Since they both worked in the Main Guild Hall, Saya and Tiffania decided they would live there as roommates, and remained close friends.

As Sylvan and Ren continued chowing down on their breakfasts, Sylvan began to ask, "I bet you two already ate, huh?"

Saya replied, "Yeah, we did. It's a lot easier to get food when it's early and not as crowded." Tiffania merely nodded along with Saya.

Sylvan began to reply to this, shooting a teasing smirk at his Zoroark roommate. "Maybe you shouldn't stay up so late and sleep in so late then, huh, Ren?"

To this, Ren simply glared back at Sylvan as he continued to finish his breakfast. Still, Ren knew Sylvan was only joking. But then, Saya interjected, "Well, you are a dark-type Ren. I can imagine how much you must love the nighttime."

To this, Ren responded, "At least you understand." all the while making the goofiest-looking grin towards the Lopunny he was so fond of. The whole ordeal caused their table to share a good laugh.

As Sylvan and Ren finally finished their breakfasts, Saya perked up, as though as she remembered something important. "Oh yeah!" Saya almost exclaimed. "I forgot to tell you guys! Tiffania was telling me earlier, there's this mysterious case involving a Z crystal theft. You guys wanna look into it?"

"Sure." Sylvan replied as Ren nodded, confirming their team's decision on what to do for the day.

"Alright Tiffania, can you get us the full details on that case?" Saya asked.

"Sure!" Tiffania replied, "Just come follow me to my desk. The information is there." Somehow the nervousness in Tiffania's voice had completely disappeared, and was replaced with the tiniest bit of excitement.

* * *

The group followed Tiffania to what looked like a quest counter, eager to get more details on their "quest."

"Alright." Saya spoke, an almost professional tone in her voice. "Here's what we know about the crime. Our client is a Simisage who had his Grassium Z stolen. He remembers walking through the forest, when he was ambushed. He was poisoned and he fainted, but when he woke up he felt perfectly fine and healed, and the only thing stolen from him was his Z crystal. The crime took place in the forest, north of here."

"Interesting." Sylvan said, bringing a claw to his chin in contemplation. "I bet someone passed by and healed him."

"Well, thankfully someone did." Saya replied optimistically.

Ren merely remained silent, looking for any hidden clues in Tiffania's briefing. Out of ideas, Ren simply shook his head lightly, "If it's a poison Pokémon we're dealing with, we better be prepared with some Pecha berries, especially for you Sylvan." Rather annoyedly, Sylvan replied, "Hey, just cause they're poison-types doesn't mean I'm weak to them!" "But grass-types are weak to poison-types." Tiffania interjected shyly, hoping not to cause a commotion. "Shut up!" Sylvan exclaimed. His outburst managed to turn a few heads around the room, much to Sylvan's embarrassment.

This little scene caused the group, excluding Sylvan, to share a light laugh. Placing a hand on Sylvan's shoulder, Saya managed to speak through some of her laughter, "It's ok, we all know you're strong Sylvan. It's just good to be prepared."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sylvan replied sheepishly.

* * *

Once they had sufficiently stocked up on fresh Pecha berries, Team Zephyr ventured into the northern forest in search of clues.

If you looked on a map, you could see that Star Town was surrounded on all sides by forests; these forests were collectively known as the Lustrous Forest, perhaps because they were the "luster" surrounding the "star," Star Town. To differentiate between different areas of the forest, however, the inhabitants simply used terms such as northern forest and southern forest.

The forest florae were very beautiful. While they followed a dirt path, they were surrounded to their sides by various shades of green from the various bushes and grasses. If you looked closely, you could see small flowers of various colors. Some of them may have been difficult to see if there wasn't enough light nearby, though. In some of the darker spots, some red mushrooms could be seen, along with an occasional purple mushroom. In one specific dark spot, Sylvan couldn't help but notice a small white flower, which unfortunately was starting to wilt. Sylvan quickly brushed it off however, and kept on walking.

The sun's rays were almost completely blocked by the leafy ceiling high above them from the tall trees. The light only trickled down in small patches, only coming down where the thick leaves did not completely cover the forest. As they walked through the forest, they occasionally heard chirping from some of the nearby bird Pokémon, along with some buzzing from bug Pokémon. The forest was full of life, and gave off a tranquil, yet majestic atmosphere to the adventurers.

* * *

The trio searched the forest all day looking for clues on the toxic thief, but to no avail. They even came across many Pokémon who lived in the forest, asking them if they had any information. However, none of them were able to help them in their search. The sun was getting lower in the sky as it approached evening, and the team hadn't gotten even a single clue as to who this mystery thief was.

"It's getting late already," said Saya. "We should probably start heading back to Star Town."

"But we haven't even got a single clue." Replied Sylvan. Even though he was trying to hide it, he was clearly annoyed.

"Well, what do you think Ren?" Saya said as she began to turn to her friend. "Do you- wait…" At this moment she noticed Ren was no longer there. A quick wave of panic surged over her as she tried looking around for her friend.

"Ren?! Where are you?!" she called, worry evident in her voice. 'Did the mystery thief hurt Ren?' was her only thought.

Hearing a voice through the trees in the distance, they quickly turned to see Ren standing in a clearing, safe and sound. "Hey guys! Come over here!" he beckoned them over. Although he was unharmed, the worried tone in his voice gave the message that this might be urgent, and serious.

Sylvan and Saya quickly rushed over to their friend, finding him in the clearing, looking down at the ground with a half-worried, and half-contemplative look on his face. What the two saw when they got to the clearing shocked them. Laying on the ground was a small flower Pokémon, fainted.

The Pokémon was no more than eight inches tall. The Pokémon resembled a small fairy-like creature, and had a white upper body and head, with a green lower body. In it's hands it clutched the stem of a white flower, larger than it's own body. The way it held the flower was reminiscent to that of a small child clutching a teddy bear. They instantly recognized this Pokémon as a Floette. They may have mistaken the Floette's unconsciousness for normal sleep if she wasn't clutching her flower so tightly like she was in a nightmare.

Saya immediately kneeled down on the ground to examine the poor Floette. Saya was the most knowledgeable of healing out of their group, so she usually handled situations like this. She wasn't a professional doctor like the Audino, Chansey, and Blissey back at the guild, but she did know more about healing than her two teammates.

After a tense moment of examination, Saya let out a sigh of relief, which quickly lifted the worry from the other two Pokémon on her team. "She's going to be alright." Saya said, "I can tell you she was knocked out from another Pokémon's attack. But all her wounds have been healed already, she's just unconscious. She shouldn't be in any real pain. Why don't we take her back to the guild with us so the doctors can examine her further?"

Ren gave a quick, silent nod, as Sylvan merely replied, "Of course." Sylvan was currently distracted checking the ground for any clues on the assailant, such as footprints, fur, or even scales, but unfortunately didn't find anything. Whoever this criminal was, they were good at not leaving evidence. Annoyed at the elusiveness of clues, Sylvan gave up searching for them, as he turned and carefully picked up the small Floette, resting her safely in his arms. "Let's go." Sylvan said solemnly as he began the walk back to the guild hall.

Ren and Saya followed closely behind.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading ^^**

 **Also: don't expect me to update soon, I'm pretty busy with school :P**

 **But anyways… what happened to Floette? Will our heroes ever uncover the identity of the mystery thief? Find out next time on…** ** _Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Z!_** **… okay I'll shut up now XD**

 **-Rin**


End file.
